Legendary Tamers
by sour gummies
Summary: After defeating Millenniummon for the final time, Ryo Akiyama is offered one chance, to enter a new universe and start all over again. He takes that chance, never again to return to the world where he was born. And he takes nine-year-old Ken Ichijouji with him. -ADVENTURE/TAMERS CROSSOVER, AU.-
1. Chapter 1

**a/n****:** whoops, I just realized I uploaded the first chapter this morning without appending an author's note, which might make the story hella confusing to those who don't know all the background. This fic is an AU of _Tamers,_ taking place after the canon Wonderswan Digimon games, where Ryo is the main protagonist fighting Millenniummon alongside Ken Ichijouji—all of which takes place in the world of _Adventure, _including Taichi and the other Chosen Children/Digidestined. At the end of Ryo's last adventure, he goes through a portal to another world, ending up in the world of _Tamers_ with Takato and the others. It's weird, but I'm not making any of it up. The AU element here is that in canon, he doesn't contact anyone from his own world before he leaves and everyone assumes he's died. In this story, however...well, read the summary. Enjoy.

* * *

**LEGENDARY TAMER**, ENIAC said, its voice echoing indefinitely throughout the boundless realm that was its home. **BY YOUR DEFEAT OF MILLENNIUMMON,** **YOU HAVE SAVED AN INFINITE NUMBER OF WORLDS FROM CERTAIN ANNIHILATION. I THANK YOU FOR YOUR BRAVERY AND PERSEVERANCE.**

Ryo nodded numbly at the words, mostly out of a sense of obligation. He didn't feel like much of a legendary tamer right now. Mostly he felt exhausted, angry and used; if it weren't for the weight of Monodramon's egg resting in his arms, he might have started storming around looking for something to _hit_.

Instead he stood stock-still, empty and drained. He wasn't sure exactly what it was that he wanted, in compensation for his grueling ordeal with Millenniummon. Maybe he didn't want anything. But it definitely wasn't thanks.

"ENIAC," Ryo began suddenly, as a new thought struck him. "Those portals I used to go between worlds—are any of them still open? Besides the one that leads back home."

There was a pause before the computer entity spoke again. Whether it was busy calculating, or simply hesitant to answer, Ryo wasn't sure.

**THERE IS ONE PORTAL OPEN,** ENIAC said. **I CANNOT SAY FOR CERTAIN WHAT LIES BEYOND IT. WILL YOU VENTURE THERE, INSTEAD OF RETURNING HOME, LEGENDARY TAMER?**

Feeling relieved that it wasn't trying to dissuade him, Ryo considered his answer carefully. "I'm not sure," he admitted, staring down at the egg in his hands. "I mean, I know it must be crazy—the idea that I wouldn't _want_ to go back, after all that happened...but..."

_But I don't. _

**THE CHOICE IS YOURS,** ENIAC said, contributing nothing that would influence Ryo's decision one way or another. **BUT YOU MUST CHOOSE SOON, LEGENDARY TAMER. THE OPENED PORTAL WILL NOT REMAIN SO FOR LONG.**

Ryo nodded. He'd have to think quickly.

_So why leave?_ He still wasn't sure exactly why it was, that the possibility of another world had struck him with such clarity in the first place. It wasn't as though he had nothing left for him in his own world. After all, didn't he have friends, people that he cared about? And what about his family?

Well, his family was an easy one. Ryo's parents had always kept their distance, never being cruel, but also not so involved in his life that he wouldn't be able to bear the pain of leaving them. He'd been a latchkey child through and through from the beginning, which probably had something to do with his easy success at adapting to the harshness and solitude of the Digital World. Ryo racked his brains and quickly reached the conclusion that his fondest memories of his father were those of borrowing the man's laptop, surfing the web to meet new friends from all around the world.

And on the subject of his so-called 'friends'—Ryo narrowed his eyes, recalling recent events that had half-convinced him already that perhaps it wouldn't be so hard, to leave everyone he had ever known behind. Taichi and the others had tricked him. They had lied to him about the tournament, about everything. Even now, the shock of that betrayal burned, and Ryo didn't think he'd be ready to speak to the Chosen Children again for a long, long while, if it ever happened. The Chosen Children had dragged Ryo away from Ken's bedside while the boy was very nearly dying of illness, just so he could fight against Millenniummon _again_; they hadn't even had the decency to be honest with him about it from the start.

And Ken...

Recalling suddenly the artificial likeness of his friend that Millenniummon had sent, the one that called itself "Digimon Kaiser"—Ryo felt his pulse quicken unexpectedly in his chest. The last he'd seen of Ken, the boy had been recovering in bed from a strange illness he'd contracted after protecting Ryo from Millenniummon's final attack. There was something wrong with his neck, something Millenniummon had done to him, but neither Wormmon nor Gennai had been able to determine the cause. Ryo was fairly sure he'd lived, but that wasn't the thing that worried him.

"ENIAC," Ryo said suddenly. "Those counterfeit tamers I fought, the ones sent by Millenniummon...they weren't actually _real_, were they?"

**THEY WERE NOT REAL, IN THE SENSE THAT THEIR CLAIMED IDENTITIES WERE FALSEHOODS,** ENIAC replied. **THE PROJECTIONS YOU FOUGHT WERE CLONES, SENT BY MILLENNIUMMON TO HINDER YOUR PROGRESS. HOWEVER, ALL OF THEM APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN BASED UPON REAL HUMANS.**

"I know _that_!" Ryo snapped impatiently. "What I'm asking you is, regarding those clones that were versions of people from the future—the one of the Kaiser—that's not _actually_ what's going to happen to Ken, is it?"

ENIAC was silent for a long moment. Ryo's heart sank.

**FUTURE EVENTS CANNOT BE ASSUMED TO BE ABSOLUTE,** the computer finally said, sounding reluctant to commit to a straightforward _yes_ or _no_. **AS I HAVE STATED, THE CLONE CALLED "DIGIMON KAISER" WAS NOT THE TRUE KEN ICHIJOUJI. HOWEVER, THE CLONE COULD HAVE BEEN BASED UPON A REAL VERSION OF HIM, FROM EVENTS THAT HAVE NOT YET TRANSPIRED. MILLENNIUMMON'S POWERS WOULD HAVE GRANTED HIM ACCESS TO ANY KNOWLEDGE OF THE BOY'S OLDER SELF, IF HE HAD DESIRED IT.**

Ryo gritted his teeth, suppressing a sigh of anger. He'd suspected that answer was coming, but he still didn't want to hear it.

"Damn. If that _was_ Ken…" he began heatedly, but then quickly tapered off, realizing he had no idea what he was trying to say. After all, he didn't have any obligation to Ken Ichijouji—not really. The two of them had been friends, even before the mess with Millenniummon, and they'd made a great tag team in the Digital World, but Ryo could hardly be responsible for what happened to him after he was gone.

Anyway, he reasoned, the clone Millenniummon had sent probably wasn't based on the real Ken anyway, future or otherwise. The Ken that _Ryo_ knew was far too gentle and goodhearted to ever make himself a tyrant over all digimon, and he'd never demonstrated a hint of the clone's staggering arrogance and detachment. Ken had never treated his partner Wormmon with anything less than unconditional love and kindness, Ryo remembered. Millenniummon must have made up the Kaiser completely, just to screw with Ryo's head.

But still...could even Millenniummon have really fabricated a strong persona like that out of nothing?

Ryo wavered, deliberating, then finally spoke. "ENIAC. Before I make my decision, I want to see Ken one last time. Can you get me a connection with him?"

The computer hummed in response. **I CAN,** ENIAC confirmed. **BUT YOUR TIME HERE IS NOT LONG, RYO. SOON THE PORTAL WILL CLOSE, AND YOU WILL HAVE TO DECIDE ONCE AND FOR ALL.**

"Well, make it happen, then!" Ryo snapped. "And do it fast!"

He knew he was cutting it close, but this wasn't something he could let go, not in good conscience. With everything that had happened to him the past few hours, Ryo knew it might never have occurred to him to ever spare a thought toward the arrogant clone he'd mistaken for his best friend...but, unfortunately for him, it _had occurred_ to him. And now he couldn't get rid of it.

He was tired of having so much responsibility placed upon his shoulders. He wanted to _escape_ it all, to finally be free of this tiresome destiny that had caused him so much pain. But Ryo owed Ken his life, and more. Ken had always been a good friend to him; Ken would _never_ have betrayed Ryo like Taichi and the others.

Leaving him behind, especially with such a dangerous and uncertain fate, would be unforgivable.

ENIAC directed Ryo to a screen, numbers flashing a program to establish connection he had asked for.

**YOUR FRIEND KEN RETURNED TO THE REAL WORLD, SHORTLY AFTER YOU AND HE PARTED WAYS,** the computer said, ushering Ryo forward. **I HAVE ESTABLISHED A LINK TO ONE OF THE COMPUTERS IN HIS FAMILY'S HOME. IT WILL FALL TO HIM TO RESPOND TO YOUR CALL, HOWEVER.**

"Don't worry," Ryo said, peering into the screen with narrowed eyes. "He will."

Already, an impossible, unthinkable idea was beginning to itch its way into the back of Ryo's mind, at the mention of Ken's family...

_My older brother is a genius. Everyone loves him more because he's so smart._

_When Osamu is around, it's like I don't even exist. I'm just the extra person in the family._

_I want to stay here in the Digital World. I don't ever want to go home! I'll bet nobody has even noticed that I'm missing yet!_

_I wish sometimes that he would just—disappear. If he did, then Mom and Dad would love me, too, right?_

_I wish _you_ could be my brother, Ryo, not Osamu! He thinks I'm only a bother. That's what everyone thinks..._

Ryo knew he was being ridiculous in his thoughts, utterly nonsensical. This idea of his, however faint, was completely out of the question. He'd contact Ken for a minute or two now, just to bid him farewell and dispel any nagging worries—he would make sure the kid was recovering decently, that he was happy, that there was _nothing_ in his behavior that suggested he might one day turn out to become the terrible Digimon Kaiser that Millenniummon had conjured up for his twisted schemes.

And if any of that turned out not to be the case...

Ryo snapped back to attention, as an image of a familiar bedroom appeared onscreen. With a small measure of surprise, he recognized it at once as belonging to Osamu Ichijouji. Somehow, Ryo had managed to forget what would possibly be the biggest obstacle in his plan to contact Ken—namely, that the boy's older brother was the sole proprietor of the one computer in their house. And, to put their relationship in polite terms, Osamu had _never_ been Ryo Akiyama's biggest fan.

Something flickered in the corner of the screen, a moving figure. Ryo caught a quick glimpse of familiar, blue-colored hair, moving out of sight to the side of the door. Which brother did it belong to? The figure was out of range of the monitor, and too far away to see clearly.

There's not much time left, Ryo remembered to himself, stomach sinking. I have to do it now. This can't wait any longer.

He braced himself, taking a deep breath and opening his mouth to speak. "Hey! Ichijouji!" he called loudly nto the screen, heart hammering with anticipation. "Ken, it's me—Akiyama Ryo! Is that you?"

He really didn't want to do this. He might be wasting time he really needed, a chance he'd never get back. Surely Ken would be fine without him. But still he couldn't let it go.

On the screen, Ryo watched the figure start at the sound of his voice. It turned. Approached the monitor, thin, delicate features quickly morphing into an expression of surprise and disbelief.

And Ryo smiled.

"Hi, Ken," he said cheerfully into the monitor, feeling all the tension in his body evaporate at once, like it had never been. "There's something I need to tell you, kind of fast..."


	2. Chapter 2

**a/n:** I didn't intend for this chapter to turn out so long, but at least now it's at a decent stopping point. Hurray!

ALSO—if Ken's thoughts toward Ryo in this chapter seem a little...uh, _bizarre_ to you, don't worry, they're not really his. After this, the creepy-weirdness-brainwhatever goes away for a long, long time, I think, so don't worry about it for now. It'll all make sense eventually.

I hope.

* * *

Ken knew he wasn't supposed to go into his brother's room.

Technically speaking, he wasn't even supposed leave his bed. His parents had finally taken him to the family physician a few days ago, roughly a week after his return from the Digital World—long enough for them to notice he wasn't acting right. They might've done it sooner, if they'd been paying closer attention, but they never paid that close attention to Ken. Only Osamu, the _perfect_ son, had their parents' undivided attention for his model behavior. Osamu had scoffed openly at Ken when he saw his younger brother's subdued attitude, in the days following the incident with the Digivice upon his return home. Osamu thought Ken was only acting moody because of the scolding he'd gotten, for touching his brother's belongings without permission.

_He's just sulking_, Osamu had said dismissively, not at all caring who heard, inscrutable behind his glasses. _Leave him be. We already settled the matter amongst ourselves; Ken will get over it whenever he's ready to behave_.

However, it became obvious quickly enough that Osamu had, for once, been wrong in his assumptions. While it was no exaggeration to say that Ken was upset, maybe even heartbroken, that Osamu had yelled at him for touching his Digivice, that alone didn't explain the near-constant agony that now stabbed at the back of Ken's neck. Or the fact that Ken was always dead exhausted, even before he got out of bed in the morning. Or the reason why he was having traumatic, horrific nightmares every evening without fail, complete with screams awoke the entire Ichijouji household, or the disturbing weight loss he'd suffered in the span of just a few short days.

Ken didn't know _what_ to tell the rest of his family, or the doctor for that matter. He didn't think it would make any of them feel better, to hear about how he had already spent weeks recovering in the Digital World under the care of Wormmon and Gennai. Or how he was actually MUCH better now than he'd been before, directly after Millenniummon's final attack left him horribly sick and injured to the point of debilitation—or that, at one point during his recovery, everyone present at his bedside had been truly afraid that Ken was going to die.

Already, he was beginning to question to himself, as to whether or not his adventure in the Digital World had even actually _happened_. The memories were growing more and more indistinct each passing day. Only Wormmon's face still shone clearly in his mind, during those times when he strained himself to remember.

Despite his uncertainty, however, _something_ had woken Ken up from his fitful nap today and disturbed the bed rest he'd been prescribed by the family physician. As soon as his eyes opened, Ken felt a lurching, exhilarated sensation in his chest and the back of his neck, a feeling that resembled nothing he'd ever experienced before. Something was calling him, in the direction of Osamu's room. It had to do with the other world. The Digital World. He knew he shouldn't go into Osamu's room. Last time, Osamu had yelled at him, even hit him. Ken wanted to be a good boy like his brother told him. But the urge to investigate the bizarre feeling was simply overpowering.

Ken lay wide-eyed in bed another moment before slowly sitting up, gathering the energy to move. Immediately he regretted it, as a distant pounding began at his temple from the blood rushing into his head.

"Ngnn…" he moaned wearily, struggling to pull his thin blankets off. With some effort, he staggered out of bed toward the door, walking out into the hallway.

Nobody was home except for him. Ken's parents were both busy at work, and Osamu was taking a placement test at the local university despite the fact that it was still summertime. Ken gritted his teeth in unconscious anger at the thought of his brother's genius, how much better he was, and this resentment banished away the last remains of his doubt.

Recovering some of his strength through sheer force of will, Ken made his way down the hall to Osamu's room, one hand lightly placed against the wall to maintain his balance.

When he got to the door, he tentatively turned the knob and opened it. From the entryway, he could see that Osamu had left his computer on—the light from the screen flickered eerily in the empty room, seeming oddly out of place.

Without warning, the pain in Ken's neck suddenly intensified. He fell heavily against the doorframe, shaking, with a swallowed cry of pain. His head and heart pounded hard with blood and adrenaline, his whole body trembling with shock and anxiety. What had that been for?

Before Ken had time to think on it, a voice suddenly came from the computer, calling him by name:

"Hey! Ichijouji!" the voice said cheerfully, maddeningly _familiar_ yet still somehow unknown. "Ken, it's me—Akiyama Ryo! Is that you?"

Ken's head snapped up. The tingling sensation in his neck suddenly _spiked_, not with pain but something else, a jolting electric thrill than ran all along the nerves of his body. He pulled himself from the wall at once, feeling more energized than he had in weeks, and the pounding in his head seemed to lessen.

_He knew that voice_. Ken couldn't remember exactly, but he was certain that the person speaking through the monitor was someone he knew. Someone important to him. Dreamlike, he walked toward the computer, eyes widening as he recognized the face of the person that was lit up behind it. The grinning boy was older than Ken, instantly familiar, and his name hovered uncertainly on the tip of Ken's tongue…but for some reason, Ken found he couldn't place him. The stranger saved him the embarrassment of acknowledging this by speaking up first.

"Hi, Ken," the boy called cheerfully from the monitor, seemingly quite pleased to meet. "There's something I need to tell you, kind of fast..."

Hearing the stranger call him again by name brought Ken's memory flooding back in a rush. He took a step back, dizzy from it. "R-Ryo?" he managed, swaying in place before running up to the desk to grip both sides of the monitor in his hands. "_Ryo_, oh my gosh—it's _you_, you're alive! Ryo"

"'Course I'm alive," the older boy said, a faint smirk playing on his lips. Teasing him. "I'm the undefeatable, Legendary Tamer Ryo, remember? No evil digimon could ever be strong enough to kill me_._"

Ken gaped at him, then caught sight of something else on the screen. "Is that a DigiTama?" he whispered in awe, pointing at the grey-colored egg in Ryo's arms. A torrent of memories flooded his mind from the Digital World. How could he have ever doubted that it was real?

Ryo gave the barest of chuckles. "Yup. Say hello to Monodramon, my latest digimon partner—for _real_ this time. Not just somebody else's on a loan." The older boy's smile quickly faded, and he grew serious. "Listen, Ken. There's something I wanted to talk to you about, but there's not much time."

"What is it, Ryo?" Ken asked him, lost. When he'd woken up from his illness in the Digital World, _finally_, Gennai had said that Ryo only left Ken's bedside because of a new threat that required his skill as a tamer. But then, none of them had heard from him again when he disappeared. Did Ryo need Ken's help again, fighting another evil digimon?

Ken wasn't supposed to use Osamu's Digivice anymore...

"I'm going to be leaving this world very soon," Ryo said calmly, the words driving all other thoughts from Ken's mind. "The place I'm going isn't the Earth we know, or the Digital World—at least, not ours. It's a lot further than that, and once I'm gone, you won't be able to follow me. Neither will Gennai, or any of the others. I don't really know if I'll ever be able to come back."

Ken stared at him, uncomprehending. Leaving? Ryo was leaving?

Suddenly, a renewed wave of blinding pain shot out from the the back of Ken's neck, making him gasp aloud. Slamming one arm to the desk for balance, the other shot up to grip at the worst part of the injury, clutching at skin that was badly inflamed from weeks of him digging into it. His wide, horrified eyes stared down into nothing below, unseeing.

"You're leaving me again?" he heard himself demanding loudly, the sound frantic and ragged in his own ears. "You're going away? Ryo?"

"It's not like that, Ken," Ryo said quickly, sounding pained. He seemed to have mistaken the younger boy's disproportionate response for grief instead of physical pain. "It's something I have to do, for my own sake. There's nothing left for me here in this world, and it just wouldn't be the same anymore, going home again like nothing ever happened. After all that took place with Millenniummon…you understand why I can't go back, don't you, Ken?"

For a moment, Ken thought, recalling the painful strangeness of this past week with his family. Neither his parents nor Osamu had any idea about the months he'd spent in the Digital World, fighting Millenniummon, though Osamu might have suspected something was amiss about the Digivice. Ken felt a sudden, deep sense of pity and understanding for Ryo. His friend didn't deserve to suffer any more.

An instant later, those empathetic thoughts were driven from his mind, at the onset of another intense burst of pain in the back of his neck. This time Ken couldn't hold his cry of pain, collapsing hard against Osamu's desk. He clutched his head in agony with both hands, try uselessly to control the splitting pain. His eyes and teeth were clenched tightly shut, unable to bear it.

He wasn't sure why, but suddenly he knew there was some element about this—this _pain_ he was feeling, _had_ been feeling for weeks—he knew it had to have something to do with Ryo. With Ryo leaving.

"_Ken_?" he heard the older demand, as though from far away. "Ken, what happened to you? What's the matter?"

Ken shook so violently he thought he slide from the desk down to the floor. "Please. Please, don't leave," he choked out, not understanding _why_ it was suddenly so important to make Ryo stay, but knowing all the same that it _was_. He couldn't put the feeling into words. "Please don't leave again, Ryo. You said you were my friend."

"Ken..." Ryo began, sounding uncertain of what to say.

Ken straightened himself with a supreme effort, looked to the older boy pleadingly in the eyes. "Please, Ryo, don't leave again," he begged, one hand gripped on the monitor and the other at his neck. "You're—You're the only one left. Wormmon had to stay in the Digital World with Gennai. Mama and Papa don't even know I'm here half the time, and Osamu...h-he hates me now. He said I'm the worst kind of person, because I used his Digivice without permission."

Ryo, looking uncharacteristically anxious, glancing quickly behind him over at something he could only see from his end of the screen. "_Damn_," he swore under his breath, probably not meaning for Ken to hear it. A bead of sweat ran down the side of his face. "Not much time left, not much time—Ken, did your brother really say that about you? Word for word?"

Ken nodded without hesitation, his hurt and sadness quickly morphing into anger at the memory. "He said only the worst kinds of people take things that don't belong to them," he told Ryo, his voice shaking. "He said that's what I was. A _thief_. He said I was just distracting him from his studies..."

He curled in on himself a bit, wrapping his arms loosely around his body. Unconsciously, he fingered a mottled yellow bruise on the back of his wrist—a reminder of where Osamu had hit him over a week ago, knocking the borrowed Digivice out of his hand. A slap like that might not have left a mark on another person, but Ken's skin had always been delicate. That was just one more advantage that his beloved, perfect older brother had over him. He was strong. Ken was weak. That was how it always was.

As these thoughts consumed him, it became harder and harder for Ken to distinguish between the pain in his head and the one in his heart. His head hurt so _much_ he could barely think. His whole neck was on fire. Osamu's slap had been nothing compared to this, but there was a raw pain in his chest when he remembered it that wouldn't fade. Only could make it stop, but Ken didn't know how.

In the world outside his mind, Ryo's sharp gaze didn't miss the path Ken's fingers traced unthinkingly over his skin. The older boy's eyes widened, taking in the bruise, then quickly narrowed again in hard suspicion.

"Ken, what is that?" he demanded sharply. "Show me your arm."

Blinking dumbly, Ken stared at him a moment, then stared down at his arm. Only the sight of the bruise itself made him realize what Ryo was getting at. "Oh, that's—that's n-nothing, Ryo, really," he lied, unable to meet his eyes. He didn't want to talk about that memory, not even with his best friend. "I mean, it's not...i-it doesn't hurt. It doesn't. That happened ages ago. I should never have touched his Digivice in the first place..."

Eyes wet, Ken automatically wiped his face with the back of his hand, not realizing that the movement gave Ryo a better glimpse of his bruised wrist. The older boy's face grew uncharacteristically dark, his blue eyes like shards of ice.

"He did that to you. Your older brother," Ryo said harshly, not phrasing it as a question. "I can't believe this. You _both_ found that Digivice together, you told me how it happened. Why did Osamu think it was only his? Did your parents even punish him for hitting you? _...Ken!_"

Trapped like a deer in the headlights, Ken opened his mouth, possibly to say something in defense of his older brother. However, no words came out when he tried to speak. Ryo's hardening expression told Ken that no answer was necessary: he'd already read the truth plain on his face. Their parents had never noticed the bruise on Ken's arm to begin with, and even if they had, Osamu wouldn't have been punished for it. The Ichijoujis were far too enamored with their eldest son to ever believe he would intentionally do something like that to harm his younger brother.

Ken closed his mouth and turned bitterly away from Ryo. "I hate Osamu," he said quietly in a sudden fit of rage, feeling a new flood of darkness and _pain_ spreading out from the injury on the back of his neck. "I hate Osamu. I hate him! If _he_ were gone, my life would be perfect! I wish he would just DISAPPEAR!"

Ryo sucked in a hissing breath. Ken looked up at the screen, startled by the sound, and saw that the older boy was glancing back over his shoulder again with a helpless sort of anger. Ken recalled Ryo's words to him from before: _Not much time, not much time._

"Ken, listen to me," Ryo finally said quickly, running a hand through his brown hair with an agitated expression. "I know this is your family, not mine, but I don't know if it's a good idea for you to stay here with them. For goodness' sake, you've only been home for a week, and _look_ at you—you're a complete wreck! You never acted like this before. What have these people done to you?"

Ken only took one detail from Ryo's tirade. "You think I'm a failure, too," he murmured, sinking in on himself. He felt crushed somewhere deep inside his chest. "You think I'm bad. Like Osamu."

_Always a failure. Never perfect. Never enough like him._ A cold, unfamiliar voice made its presence suddenly known in the back of Ken's mind, while his neck blazed with terrible pain. _Never good enough. Always the spare. _

_Unwanted in your own family._

"You know that's not what I meant, Ken!" Ryo was snapping at him from the wold outside Ken's thoughts. The older boy's was voice angry and very impatient.

"What did you mean?" Ken asked him desolately, feeling drained and miserable. Ryo was angry with him to. Ryo hated him. No wonder he wanted to leave.

The older boy hesitated then, a long, drawn-out moment, seeming to grapple with himself over weather or not he should say the words that were weighing on his mind. Ultimately, Ryo caved in, giving a hard sigh before looking Ken squarely in the eyes.

"Listen to me, Ichijouji. Listen very, very carefully," Ryo said, his voice more serious than Ken had ever heard it, making him snap out of his funk a little and pay attention. "I can't make Osamu disappear for you, I'm not a magician. There's not much I can do about _him_. But, I can make _you_ be the one to disappear—disappear somewhere where you'll never have to see your brother's face again. I want you to come with me. Through the gate, to another world. Let's start over."

Ken's eyes widened, uncomprehending. Make _him_ disappear? Take _him_ to another world? Ryo couldn't mean...

"Never...Never see Osamu again?" he stammered out weakly. "O-Or my parents?"

"I'd take care of you," Ryo said quickly, looking like he was trying to convince himself as much as Ken. "I promise you I would. You're my friend, Ken. Friends look out for each other, right? Just like we did against Millenniummon."

Ken nodded, but inwardly his mind was in chaos. Never see his family again? It sounded promising when Ryo said it, after how mean they had been, yet Ken still couldn't help but recoil a bit at the thought. He knew his parents were far from perfect, never attentive enough, seeming always to be so focused on their eldest son, never Ken...but they loved him too, didn't they? They had told him they did.

And Osamu...Osamu could be cruel, so strict with his words, but...he had shown him how to blow bubbles, too. He had praised Ken for his gentleness. Helped Ken with his homework. Been an older brother to him, in the good sense as well as the bad.

He couldn't decide. He couldn't, he...

But—then came _pain_. Erasing everything. Ken felt his head suddenly split apart as though driven through by a hammer; the back of his neck burned with a searing, all-consuming fire. Screaming pain lanced along his nerves under his skin, made Ken's vision white out in unfathomable agony before he could summon the air to cry out.

"_Wormmon!_" he screamed in terror, but the words met empty air. He felt, rather than _saw,_ Osamu's room fade out into nothing all around him. Ryo was gone. He was alone.

The world Ken had occupied melted away to nothing, reforming itself into a shadowy place Ken didn't recognize. He found himself engulfed on all sides by total darkness, an ocean of it, water like ink drowning everything it touched. Grey fog rose up to surround Ken as far as he could see, disappearing into the darkened sky above so seamlessly that the two were nearly blended together. Black water lapped at his knees like ice, threatening to drag him beneath the surface of the waves. He would drown here, if he didn't find his way back.

Panic filled him. He was trapped. He was alone. He needed—

_—GO WITH HIM_. _FOLLOW HIM. __RYO**.**_

Ken's neck burned. Fire. Too much. Destroying everything. He screamed in agony, tearing at his own skin unthinkingly with his nails, not stopping until his own blood dripped wetly from his hands.

"Stop it!" he shrieked, unable to stand it any longer. "Stop! Make it _stop!_"

_—RYO. __FOLLOW RYO__. ENDS OF THE EARTH. ONLY ONE. ALWAYS._

"I'll go!" Ken screamed, blinded by pain, consumed by it. He would have sold his very soul for his suffering to stop, would have sold anyone's "I'll do it! I'll go with him! _Please!_"

___—_FOLLOW HIM. ALWAYS. DESTINY. _FOREVER_.

___—_Your brother never loved you anyway.

As quickly as it had come, the voice and the dark ocean suddenly disappeared. The pain in Ken's head vanished, like it had never been, slipping dormant into a faint buzz that no longer brought him any discomfort.

Dizzily, he blinked, already forgetting what had happened. He figured he must have been too stunned by Ryo's offer for the moment to say anything. One lingering directive remained at the forefront of his thoughts: _follow him_.

The conclusion did seem like the most natural decision to make, when Ken thought about it. Ryo was Ken's best friend (human, at least), the only person who never failed to treat him like he was equally deserving of attention and praise as his older brother. Ryo was powerful and brilliant and brave and _just_; he was probably the strongest digimon tamer who had ever lived. Ken would be lucky to be his companion on another adventure.

His parents would be fine, Ken told himself, solidifying his resolve. They still had their perfect, better-loved Osamu to keep them company. That was all they had wanted in the first place, right? No Ken around, to drag down their perfect family with his uselessness.

And Osamu...well, Osamu had never loved him anyway. He couldn't have. Why else would he have said those ugly things?

"Ken? Are you coming?" Ryo asked urgently from the monitor, breaking the silence of his thoughts. "It's now or never, Ichijouji. You have to pick, me or them. If you're coming, better grab your Digivice from out of the drawer___—_ENIAC will take care of Wormmon."

The Digivice. Ken felt a sudden, renewed twist of guilt in his chest. He hated taking Osamu's property again without his permission. His brother had gotten so upset last time, made Ken feel like the worst little boy in the world. Could he really do that again, deliberately disobey his brother to get what he wanted?

But then Ryo's words echoed in his mind: m_e or them_. Pain stirred faintly from the back of Ken's neck, barely enough to serve as more than a reminder, but it was enough to steady him without conscious thought.

Ryo would be his brother from now on. Ken didn't need anyone else. He didn't owe anything to Osamu anymore.

_____—_YOU. _ONLY YOU. Only always, EVER you._ **_RYO_**. _RYO_.

_____—_WORTHY. DESTINY.

_____—_**_Forever_**_Forever**Forever**Forever**Forever**Forev_

As quickly and gently as it had come, the pain faded. It didn't bother Ken again. With new resolve, he reached for Osamu's desk drawer with trembling hands, pulling out the Digivice. _His_ Digivice, now—perhaps Osamu had been right, to say that taking it made Ken the worst sort of person imaginable. But he wasn't Osamu's problem anymore.

After this last injustice, Ken reasoned, he would never be around to bother his older brother again. He would never touch Osamu's possessions; never interrupt his important studies with pleas for attention. This was the right decision for everyone.

The Digivice began to glow in his hand. Right on cue, the computer monitor on the desk did so as well. As Ken watched, a familiar, gloved hand reached through the screen to seize his own, the touch bracing and warmly familiar. Ken felt a sudden thrill of genuine excitement, seeing Ryo grin at him through the gate like he always had. The other boy began to pull him through, leaving behind his home of nine years..

"Goodbye," Ken whispered. His eyes fluttered shut of their own accord as he passed the gate.

When he next opened them, it was to the sight of a world he had never seen, with Ryo Akiyama at his side.


	3. Chapter 3

There was no way to see anything through the blazing light all around them. Ryo kept his eyes tightly shut, using his other senses to take stock of his situation. He felt the smooth shell of Monodramon's egg curled in the crook of his right elbow. Check. Ichijouji, already passed out, was the heavy mass of dead weight that had slumped unconsciously against Ryo's left side, supported solely by Ryo's arm wrapped tightly around his chest. Check. Wormmon clung to Ryo's back like a leech, quivering in fear. Check. Just as ENIAC had promised.

It was lucky for Ryo that the laws of gravity didn't seem to apply here. Otherwise, the three of them combined likely would have been too heavy for him to carry. Not that it was very productive, either, to be floating around in a random direction when you couldn't see...

Already the beginnings of doubt were beginning to surface in his mind. _Isn't this what I wanted to get away from?_ Ryo wondered. _All these people and digimon dragging me down...?_

He shook his head quickly to clear it, angry with himself for harboring such selfish thoughts. The way Ken had been acting was far more important than his own, selfish desires to be free from everyone, even the people he truly loved. This was the only way to make sure everything would be all right.

Suddenly, a trilling cry sounded loudly near his head: Ryo's eyes snapped open to an expanse of fog and the sight of a glowing unfamiliar creature, somewhat like a digimon, flying around the empty space near his head. It was shining pure-white, round face lit up with a smile, and a single, tendril-like antenna curled down the length of its back from the top of its head. A Digimon?

"Whoa! Hey there!" Ryo shouted loudly to the creature, more surprised than he thought he'd be. Digimon were hardly unfamiliar, but he hadn't anticipated being dumped into the Digital World of another universe.

"Listen, if you can understand me, do you know the way to—uh, any other people like us?" he asked quickly, trying to keep his tone friendly while still conveying the urgency of their situation. He hadn't dragged Ken out of his home only to subject him to another round of surviving in the wilderness, and frankly the thought of it didn't much appeal to him either. "We're looking for a place where other humans live. Have you seen anything like that before?"

The creature trilled again and ducked its head once, which Ryo as a signal of affirmation. It flew closer, looping through the air around him and Ken in a ring; once, twice, three times. In its wake the glowing creature left a sparkling trail of light, which quickly formed itself into a length of shining cord.

Eyes widening, Ryo seized onto the end of the glittering rope, testing its strength with one hand. It held. When he looked up, he saw that the creature was holding the opposite end in its mouth. Was it going to use this to lead them out?

Well, if that was what it wanted, Ryo wasn't about to complain. "Thanks," he told the creature gratefully, wrapping the cord of light around himself and his companions—he pulled it twice around the still-sleeping Ken for good measure. With a nod toward the glowing creature, Ryo gave it a thumbs up as best he could, with Monodramon's egg held securely in the crook of its arm.

The creature nodded back and flew ahead of them, quickly disappearing from sight in the expansive fog. A few seconds later, the shining cord stretched taught, pulling Ryo and Ken and their digimon along as weightlessly as balloons.

"What _is_ that creature, Ryo?" Wormmon suddenly whispered from Ryo's shoulder, sounding frightened and awed. "Is he a digimon?"

"No idea," Ryo admitted, pulling the rope a bit tighter around Wormmon reassure him. "Guess we have no choice but to trust him."

The glowing creature pulled them through what looked to be about six different layers of the Digital World, a breathtaking span of environments and landmasses of all kinds. The gnome was moving so fast that Ryo could hardly get a solid glimpse of one place before they were pulled through to the next. Their flying guide finally left them in the path of a surging pink data stream, which pulled them all up toward the sky as a single unit before Ryo had a chance to protest or give his thanks.

Now, they were in another bank of white, empty fog, much like the one they had arrived in from ENIAC's lair. Numbers drifted by midair in foreign strings of binary code every once in a while, harmless as far as Ryo could tell. Ken was still asleep, apparently, though his partner was wide awake and frightened.

"Ryo, where are we now?" Wormmon asked from Ryo's back, its shivering antennae tickling the base of his neck.

"Well...I _think_ we're somewhere between the Digital World and the real world of this universe," Ryo answered, trying to keep his voice confident and upbeat. "If we keep moving forward, we'll be fine. We don't have to leave you behind this time."

"But which way is forward?"

_Crap_. "Ah, that way," Ryo lied hastily, adjusting his grip on Monodramon's egg to point in a random direction. No use letting timid Wormmon start panicking too soon, and risk waking Ken before they had a solid plan of action.

As soon as the words had left Ryo's mouth, however, there was a shift in the world around them: without warning, Ryo found himself and his companions tilted headfirst on a random axis in the void, zooming forward at breakneck pace. He opened his eyes with a startled shout, seeing only an endless white expanse rushing by them in a blur. A few strings of loose data sequences flew past too quickly for his eyes to catch on.

"Ryo!" Wormmon wailed, digging its claws tightly into Ryo's back. "Ryo, we're falling!"

"No we aren't!" he shouted back, clinging onto the egg and Ken for all he was worth. "Just hang on, Wormmon! We're going to make it!"

Then, a _jolt_—together, they were all slammed head-on into something like a wall made of water. Ryo gave a shout of surprise, air ripping from his lungs from the force of it. He felt his legs being pulled out beneath him, his grip sliding involuntarily on his companions. He seized the others closer, gritting his teeth with his eyes closed, praying, _Don't let me lose them! I promised them a chance to start over! _

Darkness swallowed them whole, equally blinding as the light.

When he opened his eyes again, it was to the sight of stars in the sky of another world.


End file.
